There are 80 new Pokemon out on the streets waiting to be caught in Pokemon Go, but with the new gen-II update there's a slightly more complicated and important change to evolutions.

There are a number of new evolutions that you can get to through gen-I Pokemon, so you need to make sure you're catching the right Pokemon to ensure you have enough candy - rather than just ignoring them.

Then you have special items, which will be available from Poke Stops. These items are:

  • King's Rock
  • Sun Stone
  • Dragon Scale
  • Metal Coat
  • Up-Grade

These names come from Pokemon lore, in Pokemon Go they're so far being called "special items".

pokemon go evolutions special items and how to evolve polytoed slowking bellossom steelix and more image 2
Pocket-lint

However, you need to dive into your Pokemon list to see what special items are needed for evolutions, as they are pictured in the evolution options for the relevant characters.

In addition to these special items you'll also need candy, so you'll have to keep catching particular gen-I Pokemon to ensure you have the candy you need. 

These are the Pokemon Go family characters that you need to catch to ensure you'll be able to make these new evolutions:

  • Eevee
  • Zubat
  • Porygon
  • Poliwag
  • Slowpoke
  • Oddish
  • Horsea
  • Onix
  • Scyther 

We've listed the lowest level Pokemon in each case as they're more common. For example, you could catch Grobat rather than Zubat, but you won't see as many. The same applies to Gloom or Seadra, as all contribute to the candy for that Pokemon family. 

We've already talked about how you get to Umbreon and Espeon, which you'll need Eevee candy for, using the name changing technique.

The existing Pokemon that have new evolutions are:

  • Golbat > Crobat

This can be evolved immediately if you have enough candy.

These are the Pokemon you need to pair up with new special items to get your new evolution:

King's Rock

  • Poliwhirl > Politoed
  • Slowpoke > Slowking 

Sun Stone

  • Gloom > Bellossom
  • Sunkern > Sunflora 

Dragon scale

  • Seadra > Kingdra

Metal Coat

  • Onix > Steelix
  • Scyther > Scizor

Up-Grade

  • Porygon > Porygon 2

Of course, there are loads of new Pokemon with new evolutions too, as well as new starter Pokemon that will evolve into something you've already got, like Pichu, Smoochum and Elekid.

Most of these details you can find in your Pokemon list already – the only one that's entirely new and we've included here is Sunkern. We're yet to encounter Sunkern, but we suspect its going to follow the path of the others.